Ben Stein? 'Ferris Bueller? Commercials for beach ball moisturizer?'

(Newser) -
On last night’s Daily Show , Jon Stewart made short work of Ben Stein’s defense of Dominique Strauss-Kahn. The first tier of Stein’s argument: The alleged sex criminal is a “short, fat old man.” Said Stewart: “Yes, he’s not nearly in the kind of...
More »

He wonders how a 'short, fat old man' could rape anyone

(Newser) -
Ben Stein is taking an Internet whipping for his defense of Dominique Strauss-Kahn in the American Spectator . Among Stein's arguments: "If he is such a womanizer and violent guy with women, why didn't he ever get charged until now? " and, skeptical of claims that DSK overpowered...
More »

After all, what good is your money when you're too old to have fun?

(Newser) -
Ben Stein still doesn’t think it’s a good idea for you to “run out of money before you run out of breath,” but assuming you have a little extra, he highly recommends you use it to buy stuff—now. Life is short, he writes in Fortune...
More »

(Newser) -
Ben Stein is miffed about his summary expulsion from the New York Times’ Sunday business section, and he explains why in a lengthy piece for the American Spectator. Booted over a TV commercial he did for an online credit reporting service—not his first commercial, and not a subject he...
More »

(Newser) -
Ben Stein has been booted from his job as a New York Times columnist for shilling for an online credit report service, Gawker reports. Stein touts the value of FreeScore.com in television commercials, but the Times’ ethics policy states “it is an inherent conflict for a journalist to...
More »

(Newser) -
Ben Stein loves Wal-Mart—just don’t put one smack-dab in the middle of a historic Civil War battlefield in Orange, Va. The 1864 Battle of the Wilderness was a turning point in the conflict, Stein writes in the American Spectator, and the “battlefield is incredibly important environmentally and...
More »

Candidate running 'absolute most pathetic campaign I have ever seen'

(Newser) -
Conservative stalwart Ben Stein thought Bob Dole's quest for the White House set the bar low, but says John McCain is “running the absolute most pathetic campaign I have ever seen in my whole life.” But there’s an answer ("Anyone? Anyone?")—talk to Karl Rove,...
More »

Ben Stein's second examination of the financial meltdown

(Newser) -
Economist, writer, actor, and lawyer Ben Stein follows up his December excoriation of Goldman Sachs' contribution to the subprime crisis with a look in today's New York Times into how Wall Street executives can get away with reckless behavior at the expense of the public. This time he targets the...
More »

Ben Stein accuses Goldman Sachs, and its former CEO Henry Paulson, of peddling mortgage securities while betting on, and abetting, their collapse

(Newser) -
In an extraordinary New York Times column Republican/libertarian economist, writer, actor, and lawyer Ben Stein accuses Goldman Sachs of being a willing participant in, and even plotting, the collapse of value in the collateralized mortgage obligation (CMO) market. In the last several years Goldman sold $100 billion of the instruments...
More »